Feast Your Eyes on This Virtual Potluck

We partnered with Virtual Potluck, a group of delicious bloggers, by giving them some of our products and letting them unleash their creative genius. We sent a mix of dried chilies, dried mushrooms, vanilla beans and risotto rice…they came up with some really great recipes, just in time for the holiday weekend!

Make sure you check out all of the delicious recipes they created below:

Working with the bloggers in this group was a lot of fun, so we surprised one of them with another special ingredient to play with, just for fun! We heard your thoughts and considered all of the recipes, and Farmgirl Gourmet was the lucky recipient! We sent a bottle of Amarena Cherry Mosto Cotto for her to experiment with and of course, the results were delicious.

Thank you so much for working with us in Virtual Potluck, and for the SoMe support! I have enjoyed the exotic ingredients tremendously, and adore your website. We had such fun coming up with all of the delicious recipes to bring to the Marx Foods Thanksgiving, and I do hope we can work together again in the future. Maybe Trufflepalooza? 🙂

As an Italian, when I saw the Food Hunters recipe for Arancini Stuffed with Exotic Mushroom Ragu I knew I had to try it. It has all my favorite foods, rice, mushrooms, Pecorino, and Fresh Mozzarella. As I was preparing it, the delicious smells brought back childhood memories of Nana cooking in the kitchen and when it was done – I couldn’t wait to dive in and start devouring. The blend of textures were having a party in my mouth – so unbelievably delicious. Try this recipe, you will not be disappointed.

What a fun crew you have Justin. It’s been a great pleasure teaming up with you and your products. I think the veggie burger with spicy vanilla BBQ sauce was great because it was so imaginative and used all ingredients. Oh wait, I can’t vote for myself. 🙂 thanks for partnering with Virtual Potluck!! (vote for the burger peeps)

My vote is for the Groovy Foody’s Spicy Vanilla Mushroom Risotto. I have to admit, I am the Groovy Foody’s husband and as such I actually got to feast on this sensual and delectable dish. Hats off to Vanessa for not only making all those ingredients work together on the fly, but for creating a risotto I’ll be asking for again and again. A great fall dish, if you want to mix things up for Thanksgiving dinner it has a great autumnal aroma and flavor.

I love the recipe Farmgirl Gourmet posted for Arborio Veggie Burger with Spicy Vanilla Bean BBQ Sauce. I am a vegetarian and always on the lookout for new and exciting recipes I can fit into my everyday cooking. This one sure does look enticing! Please count my vote for Farmgirl Gourmet.

I can see how the vanilla (while at first seemed like a shocking idea) would lend a subtle depth and create a lovely marriage between the pepper heat and the mushroom with the stabilizing starch of the rice. But now, what wine would you serve with that? Gewurztraminer?

Karen RE: the Spicy Vanilla Mushroom Risotto– I like the fact that you could go red or white with this risotto depending on your mood or the other dishes being served with it.

If you wanted to play up the vanilla in the dish, you could choose a Chardonnay (but since I am not a fan of the Chardonnay) I would choose a California Pinot Grigio (Oregon PG is fruitier while Cali’s has more of a pepper bite and there are some vanilla tones in PG as well.)You can’t go wrong with the Pinto Grigio if you serve this dish with shellfish, chicken or fish.

Though Gewurztraminer technically pairs well with spicy flavors, I find that it pairs best with more of those Asiatic spice varieties and in places where it’s complementary sweetness and bright fruity tones would be more well-suited.)

For a red, I would choose a Sangiovese, especially if I was serving this risotto with beef. And the bonus is — if you’re serving this risotto on it’s own, as a traditional primi or even as your main course on it’s own, you could choose red or white. Honestly, though, I say drink what you like and since this risotto is long on depth and earthy flavors — there is a lot of variety to be had and loads of room to play!